Fiber Dyeing: The Process

Here's the promised fiber dyeing process photos! :)

Celeste removing excess vinegar from fiber braids (the vinegar allows the dye to absorb into the fiber)

Mixing up new colors: The most popular color of the day was light blue. I think we each used about two to three bottles over the day. What can I say, it was a great base!

Working on my samples:

Celeste working a few of her braids:

As I worked on my two braids, I realized I used much of the same color combination. The main thing I changed was the amount of each color used/blended. My first braid was predominately pink, with minimal blending and fairly saturated (though still pastel-like) colors.

I also added brown to my first braid:

Finished product:

With my next braid I chose to color nearly all the fiber with the light blue dye and then add in medium blue, light green, and light pink, being careful to really blend them into the blue. Not all of the colors got wholly mixed, but I love the way it looks now.

After I braided my fiber up I was even happier with the way the colors looked. There's just something about braiding that makes the colors so pretty.

This was such a fun experiment. There's one thing I definitely learned, I LOVE colorful fiber. I came home very excited to spin, when previously I'd been a little "meh" about it, even though I have many beautiful (but neutral colored) fibers in my stash. I think in the end I'd probably prefer the neutral yarns for knitting, but during the spinning process I much prefer the colors! Conundrum? Probably :)

Make sure to check out Celeste's finished braids too, so so gorgeous!

Fiber Dyeing

Celeste was dyeing more fiber this past Saturday and invited me to have a try as well. We had quite a bit of fun playing around with the dyes.

Celeste started me off with a a few ounces of fiber separated into four chunks to give me a chance to experiment. I quickly learned several things I didn't like in the finished product, so I'm really glad I started off with samples!

(four samples from far left: 1. pink, brown, white; 2. green, blue, yellow, white; 3. yellow, pink; 4. brown, blue, white)

I learned that white areas, while cool, don't necessarily look great with most color combinations.

My pink and brown sample (far left) actually has a white tip and I like that one, but the white with darker colors didn't look as nice. Actually, most of the white spots are hidden in this photo!

I also learned the yellow dye was quite bright! We dubbed it "highlighter yellow". However, after Celeste played around with a bit, we ended up with a nice banana tone. Much better.

Oh, and blue and brown? It could work in the right context, but somehow as I look at this fiber now, all I can see is a bruise colorway. ;P

After the samples, it was time for a larger braid. I was a little nervous, but took my time deciding how I wanted to dye the skein and I'm really happy with the way it came out.

I started with pink, then added a bit of brown and green and finished up with blue. I love how the blue blended with the pink looks (the purple areas in the above photo).

Next up, I dyed this braid.

By this time, I was ready to hit my home base, so this fiber predominately my favorite color, blue. :)

I decided to start with a light blue base and blend pink, light green, and dark blue into it. I love this one. I wish the photos were more accurate, but my camera isn't photographing blue and green very well lately so this is the best I could do!

It's a bit lighter than this photo, but here you can see the color variations better than in the top photo:

While we were dyeing, I took quite a few process photos, so those will probably be making an appearance on one of our blogs soon! :)